Obama Challenges GOP to Work With Him

President Barack Obama has told congressional Republicans that it’s time to work more closely together to solve the country’s problems. He made the comments during a speech at a retreat of House Republicans Friday in Baltimore

Obama Lays Out Parameters for Bipartisan Health Reform

“If I get confirmation from health care experts, people who know the experts and how it works – including doctors and nurses – ways of reducing people’s premiums, covering those who not have insurance, making it more affordable for small businesses, having insurance reforms that ensure people have insurance even when they’ve got pre-exisiting conditions that their coverage is not dropped just because they’re sick. That young people right out of college or as they’re entering into the work force can still get health insurance. If those component parts are things that you care about and want to do, I’m game. And I’ve got a lot of these ideas.”

Obama on C-SPAN Coverage

Horrible answer, having committee meetings about a phantom bill while the real legislation is being written and negotiated behind closed doors both at the White House and in Congress is not transparency!

Obama on Earmarks

This is just ridiculous, Obama’s biggest cheerleaders – MSNBC, even pointed out the political slight of hand the Dems used to claim that the stimulus had no earmarks.

Obama on Lobbyists in Administration

Btw – PoliFact has already rated this fallacy as Obama promise broken and here’s a list of lobbyists Hot Air put out about a year ago… the list has grown since then:

Here are former lobbyists Obama has tapped for top jobs:

• Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby until 2004 on behalf of clients including Global Crossing, a bankrupt telecommunications firm [now confirmed].
• Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year on behalf of the National Education Association.
• William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for defense contractor Raytheon, where he was a top executive.
• William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until last year for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-profit that pushes to limit tobacco use.
• David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric.
• Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for financial giant Goldman Sachs.
• Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby until 2005 for clients, including the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone.
• Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for clients, including Angliss International in 2003.
• Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied in 2003 and 2004 for liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
• Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist as recently as last year for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.
• Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union.
• Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the president’s assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005.

Again violating it’s promise and guarantee of transparency, the White House has moved to block the testimony of former top aide to First Lady Michelle Obama, Jackie Norris.

Republican efforts to interview a former top aide to Michelle Obama in the controversial case of a fired inspector general have been stymied by the White House, the the top Republican looking into the case said Tuesday

The White House counsel’s office has blocked Republican investigators from interviewing Jackie Norris, former chief of staff for the first lady, about President Obama’s dismissal of former AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin.

Republican investigators from the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform have wanted to question Norris — who is now senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that oversees AmeriCorps — since they discovered earlier this month that she met with Alan Solomont, chairman of CNCS on June 9, the day before Walpin was fired.

Solomont was heavily involved in the Walpin firing, according to the Washington Examiner, which first reported the response by the first lady’s office.

The White House move was revealed in a letter sent Monday to Norris by Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the oversight panel.

“Our request to meet with you was denied by (Corporation for National and Community Service) general counsel Frank Trinity,” Issa wrote to Norris. “Mr. Trinity told my staff that the White House counsel’s office has advised him that they were not permitting the corporation to make you available for an interview.

“The White House has averred that you had no role whatsoever in the president’s decision to prevent your testimony. If the information provided by White House officials is true, it follows that no colorable claim of executive privilege should impede your cooperation with the committee,” he continued.

Issa said in a statement Tuesday that he does not see a difference between this case and Democrats’ pressing the political nature of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys under President George W. Bush.

Judaical Watch has more at their Corruption Chronicles blog:

Norris is currently a senior advisor at the organization that oversees AmeriCorps, the country’s national services program which annually receives millions of federal dollars to conquer everything from illiteracy to affordable housing and the environment. During his tenure as inspector general, Walpin exposed a multi million-dollar fraud scheme in AmeriCorps’ most expensive program, a teaching fellow project at the City University of New York, and he busted a Sacramento charity, operated by a powerful Obama ally who happens to be the city’s mayor, for misusing nearly $1 million in federal grants.

The mayor (Obama pal Kevin Johnson) illegally used the money to pay volunteers for political activities, run personal errands and even wash his car. Johnson, a former professional basketball player, acknowledged that there “may have been administrative errors” and reached a settlement with federal prosecutors to repay about half of the money. This certainly indicates that Walpin did his job of rooting out government fraud, waste and abuse quite efficiently.

It also explains why Obama has yet to come up with a valid reason—other than retaliation for busting his corrupt friend—to fire Walpin. The president violated a law that safeguards the independence of government agency watchdogs and the Democratic senator (Missouri’s Claire McCaskill) who authored the measure blasted the commander-in-chief for removing an inspector general who exposed widespread waste in taxpayer-financed community service groups.